EXODUS XXI:1-XXIV:18

GOD’S JURISPRUDENCE

The Aseret HaDibrot: The Ten Pronouncements, better known as the Ten Commandments, are included in the chapters pertaining to Parsha Yitro, which precedes this one. These Commandments have been subjected to numerous analyses and classifications. One of these explanations points out that the “Two Tablets” used to permanently engrave the Aséret HaDibrot represent a separation between the Commandments. While the former refers to man’s relationship with God, the subject of the latter is man’s relationship with his neighbor.

Our chapters are a continuation of the concern of divine legislation with the relationship between men. This is what Rashi points out  when he comments on the first word Ve’eleand questions why we have the conjunction “and” at the beginning of the verse but to indicate a continuity with the content of the previous chapters. Even the numerous laws contained in our text were enunciated at Mount Sinai.

Rashi also points out that the civil laws enunciated in our chapters are contiguous to the instruction of the  previous Parsha about the construction of the Mizbe’aḥ, to teach that a Beit Din, a judicial court should be established in the area of the altar, that is, at the entrance of the Beit HaMikdash.

Professor Hayman points out that while the Mizbe’aḥ represents the order of sacrifices that had to be offered in the Beis HaMikdash by divine command and therefore constitutes an immutable instruction, the Beis Din must make decisions according to changing situations and the conditions of the litigants. After the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, the BeitDin was moved to Yavne and according to Hayman, the rabbinical instruction to recite the prayers according to the schedule of the Korbanot had the additional purpose of linking the Beis Din with an event related to sacrifices.

A fundamental teaching of the Beis Din‘s closeness  to Mizbe’aḥ emphasizes that basic spirituality, represented by the korban, must be translated into behavior symbolized by the decisions of the courts of justice. Just as there had to be a correlation between man’s duties to God and his duties to his neighbor, so the connection had to be made between sacrifice to God and just and equitable behavior in society.

The universe was created by God and, therefore, does not allow the demonization of matter, which is also a product of that creation. For this reason, the Torah insists on relating the spiritual and the everyday, “flesh and soul” are ingredients of the human being who received the “breath” of God who gave him life.

The contiguity between the Beit Din and the Mizbe’aḥemphasizes that, in considering the civil laws that govern society, the duties of safeguarding the property of others, avoiding injury and abuse, helping the poor and assisting the fallen, not abstracting oneself from the problems of one’s neighbor, not cursing the deaf, nor putting an obstacle in front of the blind and the numerous laws included in our biblical text, it must be considered that these have a divine origin and their fulfillment becomes a religious act of faith.

The relationship between civil law and sacrifice is a way of inviting God to come out of the sacred precincts of the Beis HaMikdash and the present synagogue and to be present in the marketplace and in commerce, in the profession and in academia. 

Just as the honor due to father and mother was enunciated at Sinai and its fulfillment is a religious duty, so the return of a borrowed object, instruction contained in our chapters, manifests faith in the same Creator who enunciated the Ten Commandments.

Just as one should not invoke in God’s Name in vain, there is also the imperative not to offer or accept a bribe.

MITZVAH: ORDINANCE OF THE TORAH IN THIS PARSHA

CONTAINS 24  POSITIVE MITZVOT AND 29 PROHIBITIONS

42. Exodus 21:2 Laws Concerning a Hebrew Slave

43. Exodus 21:8 The Conjugal Status of a Hebrew Slave

44. Exodus 21:8 Redemption of a Hebrew slave girl

45. Exodus 21:8 Whoever buys a Hebrew slave girl from his father may not sell her

46. Exodus 21:10 Do not diminish or deny the wife: food, clothing, marital rights

47. Exodus 21:12 The court is to execute by strangulation the one who deserves this form of death

48. Exodus 21:15 Do not strike the father or mother who deserves this form of death

49. Exodus 21:18 Laws of Punishment

50. Exodus 21:10 The court is to execute by the sword the one who deserves this form of death

51. Exodus 21:18 The Court’s Obligation to Award Damages Caused by Domestic Animals

52. Exodus 21:28 Do not eat of the ox sentenced to be stoned

53. Exodus 21:33 Obligation of the Court to Award Damage Caused by a Well

54. Exodus 21:37 Court Forced to Impose Payment on the Thief

55. Exodus 22:4 Court forced to impose damage caused by a domestic animal for grazing or trampling

56. Exodus 22:5 Court Forced to Award Fire Damages

57. Exodus 22:6 Court Forced to Award Payment to a Custodian

58. Exodus 22:8 Court Forced to Adjudicate Both Litigants

59. Exodus 22:9 Court forced into custody receiving payment or other custody

60. Exodus 22:13 Court Bound to Adjudicate Case of One Who Borrows an Object for Us15

61. Exodus 22:15 Court Forced to Adjudicate Case of a Seducer

62. Exodus 22:17 Not allowing life to the sorceress

63. Exodus 22:20 Do not verbally oppress one who converts to Judaism

64. Exodus 22:20 Do not deceive him who converts to Judaism in cases of property

65. Exodus 22:21 Do not mistreat an orphan or a widow

66. Exodus 22:24 Lending to the poor

67. Exodus 22:24 Do not insist on the payment of debt to the poor who have no means to pay

68. Exodus 22:24 Failing to Help the Lender or Creditor Foreclose on an Interest-Bearing Loan

69. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the judge

70. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the Name of God

71. Exodus 22:27 Do not curse the ruler

72. Exodus 22:28 Do not set apart the tithe in the wrong order

73. Exodus 22:30 Do not eat from a qualified animal tre’ifah

74. Exodus 23:1 Not hearing a plea in court if the opposing party is not present

75. Exodus 23:1 The sinner must not bear witness

76. Exodus 23:2 A capital punishment case should not be condemned by a majority of a single judge

77. Exodus 23:2 A judge who pleads innocence in the case of capital punishment should not then plead guilt

78. Exodus 23:2 Following the majority in legal decisions

79. Exodus 23:3 No mercy should be shown for the poor during the judgment

80. Exodus 23:5 Take away heavy burden from your neighbor’s animal

81. Exodus 23:6 Do not pervert righteousness in the case of a sinner

82. Exodus 23:7 Not Deciding a Capital Punishment Case Through Probabilities

83. Exodus 23:8 The judge should not receive a bribe

84. Exodus 23:11 The obligation of Shemitah to leave the produce of the land without an owner in the Sabbath year (seventh year)

85. Exodus 23:12 Rest on Shabbat

86. Exodus 23:13 Do not swear by calling on an idol

87. Exodus 23:13 Do not lead the Jewish people into idolatry

88. Exodus 23:14 Bringing offerings to the Holy Temple on the feasts

89. Exodus 23:18 Do not make the Passover offering  while still possessing chamets

90. Exodus 23:18 Do not allow parts of the Passover offering to stay awake

91. Exodus 23:19 Bringing the Bikkurim (First Fruits) to the Temple 

92. Exodus 23:19 Do not cook meat in milk

93. Exodus 23:32 Not to make treaties with the seven nations that were to be eradicated from the Land of Israel, nor with idolaters

94. Exodus 23:33 Do not allow idolaters to settle in the Land of Israel